Selma And Fundraising
As I watched the moving news coverage of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” — the March from Selma to Montgomery — I wondered: how many of today’s fundraisers know where the money came from to make that historic event happen?
Probably not very many. And that’s sad because the history of how great social movements and good causes were funded is inspiring both for today’s fundraisers and today’s donors.
The events on “Bloody Sunday”, March 7, 1965, proved to be a turning point in the civil rights movement, recently depicted in the movie Selma. When 600 demonstrators embarking on a 50 mile march to Montgomery for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, Alabama state troopers and a sheriff’s posse attacked with billy clubs and tear gas, leading to the passage of the landmark voting rights act of 1965.
But those events didn’t just happen. It took years of organizing, pain, sacrifice and yes, fundraising, to bring the civil rights movement to that point. And the fundraising lessons of that movement — and the women’s rights movement, LGBT movement, environmental movement and all successful movements should be embedded in us all.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers didn’t get to Selma and beyond by calling up a consultant and signing a purchase order for money. Nor, contrary to some beliefs, was the movement launched with foundation grants and major donor gifts from Northern liberals. All that came late to the party.
Instead, the many local struggles that made up the civil rights movement supported themselves. Today we call it ‘grassroots fundraising’. Those fundraising ‘sophisticates’ who disparage it as not high-tech or not advanced enough have no idea of its power and importance as an engine of social change.
As Morris Aldon points out in his moving 1984 book, Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change, it was from the base of mostly poor people that the money was raised to make history — African Americans in southern cities who were overwhelmingly clustered in the lowest-paid and dirtiest jobs.
In Birmingham, Alabama, for example, approximately $312,000 in today’s dollars was raised over three years from the local black working-class and poor community. A key fundraising tactic relied on meetings in black churches where folks could gather out of sight of the generally hostile white community.
It wasn’t easy and sometimes downright unsafe to be a donor. Remember, most working class African Americans were dependent on the white power structure and could lose their jobs if they overtly identified with the movement. Morris writes that some black professionals — teachers, doctors, lawyers — would place their garbage at predetermined locations. Inside the trash containers were names of other prominent blacks who wanted to support the movement in any way they could.
This same grassroots pattern, without the need for as much secrecy, was followed by black churches, organizations and individuals in the north.
If ever there was a poignant example of the aphorism — “mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow” — grassroots fundraising fits the bill. In fact, it’s so important to the origins of most of what the rest of us do that I’m a bit ashamed Tom and I haven’t covered the subject more. We’ll try to remedy that.
Of course there will be a tendency among some to dismiss the importance of grassroots fundraising because it doesn’t apply to ‘our’ work or because the civil rights (or any ‘rights’) movement is historic and ‘I don’t work for an organization with that momentum’.
But…, as Holly Fincke, executive director of the Windcall Institute and a grassroots fundraising expert who’s written and blogged on this subject put it:
“You can argue the Civil Rights Movement had a momentum we don’t have today, inspiring participants to high levels of sacrifice. Fair enough.
“But I think if we set our sights on incorporating even some of this movement’s fundraising lessons, the vitality and strategic contributions of our organizations would expand. It goes deeper than a plan. It’s more profound than a fundraising task list. It’s a deep faith in the capacity of everyday people to make their own history and support their own organizations. That’s the vision I’m rededicating myself to today.”
Me too! How about you?
Roger
P.S. Tom and I are curious. Would you like an occasional bit of fundraising history, or would you rather we pass on the past? Please let us know in the Comments section or by clicking on the ‘Rate This Post’ button at the top and bottom of this post. Give us your thoughts. Thank you.
17 responses to “Selma And Fundraising”
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Dear Roger and Tom,
Thank you for this inspiring lesson from history. If we don’t value and preserve our past, how can we expect to wisely shape our future?
As you know, the SOFII (www.sofii.org) project is founded on the dream of collecting and sharing lessons of best practice from fundraising’s colourful and instructive past. We’d love to add this piece to SOFII’s history project (we have 100s of fundraising examples, some going back 3,500+ years), and if nothing else your piece this morning has galvanised me into reinvigorating the SOFII history project.
While writing, Roger, I seem to recall that you yourself played a very considerable and innovative role in promoting civil rights in America in the 60s and beyond. Those stories of pioneering direct marketing for social change should be told too. I implore you, get digging.
Any fundraiser who doesn’t understand his or her history is condemned to repeat it. Keep agitating, please.
Best,
Ken
I should have said,
‘Any fundraiser who doesn’t understand his or her history is condemned to repeat the mistakes and miss the lessons.
Sorry!
Yes, more history please. And thank you.
P.S. SOFII’s history project is well worth repeat visits: http://sofii.org/foundations-of-fundraising/sofii-history-project. Wonderful examples plus superb commentary by folks who know their fundraising stuff, incl. Aline Reed, Reinier Spruit and Mark Phillips.
I concur with Ken and Lisa. That’s one reason I wrote a piece called “Philanthropy’s Moral Dilemma.” It’s the final chapter of KEEP YOUR DONORS. Also posted in the Free Download Library of my website.
Traditional philanthropy…. Social change philanthropy…. Community organizing and grassroots fundraising and gifts of any amount…. And then there’s traditional fundraising. Pick whichever you want as a donor. Focus on whichever you want as a fundraiser.
But let’s make sure our fundraising history books tell all. Let’s make sure our conferences and blogs and and … talk about social change philanthropy and traditional philanthropy.
I’ve been harping on this for years – one way or the other. Enough with “major gifts.” Enough with “major donors.” Enough with the interpretation of “transformational philanthropy” as big big big gifts and hugely moneyed donors.
Philanthropy can (and I believe should) be a democratizing act. Social change philanthropy like the Civil Rights movement, LBGTQ rights, the feminist movement …. are all about unearned privilege and community organizing and gifts from grassroots.
That’s all part of our history. Yes. Please. Write and talk and fight. A bit like the statements you wrote in that long-ago copy, Roger…. founding Common Cause. And I’m using that as my IWITOT (I Wish I’d Thought of That) for Ken’s IWITOT presentation at AFP International Conference in Baltimore at the end of the month.
Thank you, Roger. For this beautiful post and for all that you do each and every day. Yes, more history (from this history buff who cried when PBS canceled History Detectives).
Excellent post, Roger. Moving and timely. All too often non profits spend time trying to find the major donors and overlook the power and committment of their lower level donors. Similarly, major donors and foundations too often think they have the franchise on being change agents. We’d all do well to remember where true change comes from. Keep the history coming!
More history please!!
Count me with my grateful colleagues and friends above. This kind of history needs to be told and retold. It’s not only educational, it’s inspiring. And we always need more of that!
Yes, please, and thank you.
Really appreciate the history lesson and you helping us to connect the dots here. More please!
Thank you very much for this history – it’s very inspiring. I’d love to delve more into history!
I will always remember a company speech you gave early in my career, something like …20 years ago, a woman couldn’t get a bank loan without her husband’s signature…20 years ago…etc. It made me so proud and excited. I went home and told my parents. I could finally explain what my career was all about.
Thanks for this post–a great reminder of what’s at the heart of all our work: Helping our fellow human beings, at diverse income levels, participate in creating change in their local and global communities. As a development professional who is an African American, I struggle with the sector norm we’ve established–and almost all continue to uphold–to acknowledge the contributions of individual donors at higher dollar gift levels (who, in the communities I’ve served, usually are not people of color) more fervently than those at other levels. We know people from middle- and low-income households historically donate a higher percentage of their incomes, that what’s “major” to a person or family can be very different from what an organization considers so. I think Simone is right on. I would love to see us, as both a profession and sector, keep grappling with this issue.
Roger, thanks for the fundraising history lesson. Yes, more please. I fondly remember wandering in Lyons France with Polly Agee (a wonderful woman and great fundraiser for those of you who never met her) many years ago. We were in the courtyard of an old church, and lo and behold, there was a donor wall — from centuries ago!
Thank you, Roger. The past is prologue, and we need more prologue in our profession.
Roger and Tom – I so enjoyed reading this post! Recently, I’ve become really interested in how fundraising can take more cues from activism and progressive movement work. My inclination is to say that that is how we can make great progress in our industry. I hope you write more fundraising history lessons.
Great post. Yes to more history please!